Folk

Today is International Women’s Day and thought how male-dominated Bluesdoodles the ration is dismal not deliberately but how music is promoted perhaps or internal and unrecognized biases.

As a woman and blogger of music, it dawned on me that this needed to be rectified not for one day but every day. So to celebrate International Women’s Day 2018 a new page is being launched Women In Music.

The Women In Music Zone is a place for women involved in the music business, singers, musicians and as importantly women involved across the industry. Photographers, Sound & Lighting Engineers, Producers, Promoters, bloggers etc.

This is a place for all women involved in Music who celebrate their art through Blues, Americana, Roots and Rock music the focus of Bluesdoodles.

Welcome aboard and join the day women’s voices were heard louder with confidence.

Email your story to liz@bluesdoodles.com and get involved with Bluesdoodles Women in Music. Today and every day.

DAY 24 Bluesdoodles Advent Calendar of Delights

Today, Christmas Eve we will glimpse back and the highlights of 2017 and pull the digital curtain on what is already exciting Bluesdoodles in 2018

2018 Snippets

Bluesdoodles is growing faster than ever. From January we will have a team of five so more Interviews and Album reviews for starters. We are very excited about this as next year already looks like it is going to be wall to wall music recorded and live.

Advent 22 Gig and Live Music Fun in Wales 2017

Festival and Gig Reviews 2017

Steelhouse 2017 Simply Marvellous Mud Music and Mates

Steelhouse family came together on a Welsh Mountain united by rain, sun and MUD! The glue binding us was live music and the super glue the brilliance of Bernie Marsden not once, not twice but all three days on the stage entertaining. We had dragon magic gracing the festival that you climb up slowly to the top driving up a rough track to the top of a Welsh Mountain above Aberbeeg. Read More HERE … Steelhouse 2017

Kenny Wayne Shepherd plays a Halloween Treat at The Tramshed.

Opening the cauldron of fiery guitar curling around the blues, we have Laurence Jones Band. The lead breaks were scintillating Kenny certainly makes the Strat bend to his fingers demands as it weeps, curls around tones of joy and pain. Tonight the setlist was a mix of old and new with six tracks from his current acclaimed album Lay It On Down. Read more HERE

Blues Flowed up the Taff with Walter Trout Tonight

The Muniis back open for gigs. The crowds outside just show how popular the venue still is and the two acts on tonight Sari Schorr and The Engine Roomopening for the mighty Walter Trout. …. What a wonderful version of the mighty Albert Collin’s Cold Cold Feeling. Under Walter’s dexterous fingers he magic’s up a pure connection to the original whilst making this a pure gold classic Walter playing live moment. READ More HERE

Walter Trout with Special Guest Sari Schorr @ The Muni, Pontypridd October 2017

The Night Siren Steve Hackett Charms St David’s Hall Cardiff

Tonight the last Friday of April the packed St David’s Hall was treated to a programme of two halves. A musical programme of two movements. The first Prog Rock modern, progressive and pertinent as Steve Hackettunveiled live numbers from his stunning album The Night Siren and dipping onto four of his many solo albums. The second helping on this musical palette of delights was a revisiting of Genesis, the majority drawn from Wind and Wuthering celebrating forty years since its release. Read more HERE

With a sold out show, everyone was at The Globe to hear the unique Hayseed Dixie take on classic songs we love to hear. Before the main event up on stage was an unknown entity, on the second night of their first UK Tour, a young French band, Dätcha Mandala. Read more HERE

Inbound weather for Cardiff Thunder is in Town

Do not let the clear blue skies deceive you, Cardiff is in for a British rock invasion with the promise of stormy weather brewing under the mighty hammer of Thor as Thunder hit the stage with an array of cameras. The show was being filmed tonight which added to the eagerness to get the show underway. Opening the evening, Cats In Space filled The Motorpoint Arena’s stage with energy and ready to warm up an already excitable Cardiff crowd. Read More HERE

Sunday night, The Globe was buzzing with anticipation with Dan Reed Network back in Cardiff after 27 years. … The set was a Jukebox of live music as after the first few songs Dan Reed asked the audience to suggest the numbers. From the first album to the latest we were taken on a tour of DRN depth and breadth of music they deliver with energy and the pure delight of playing live music for an enraptured dancing clapping and definitely noisy and appreciative Cardiff crowd. Read More HERE

Celebrating St David’s Day The Globe Finds The Answer

The wind was biting and vicious as we waited for doors to open at The Globe in Cardiff on St David’s night. The Queue was excited The Answer were in town as the long white tour bus parked outside confirmed. Before the mighty Answer would take to the stage with their distinctive blending of rock, with Irish folk to have us rolling with delight in the aisles, (we all wanted to hear our favourite tracks from Solas performed live for us)…. Read if we did HERE

King King turned up the Blues thermostat Live in Cardiff

Friday 13th bringing joy to The Globe Cardiff as Blues Rock drenches the packed audience with a medley of chords, lyrics and emotions. Special guest Broken Witt Rebels and the mighty King King turned up the Blues thermostat, the venue and the music was scorching.

Sold Out, music to the ears of bands, venues and promoters alike, as Cardiff gives a loud and enthusiastic shout out for the Blues Rock power that is King King with their special guests Broken Witt Rebels. Read More HERE

Opening with a Song from County Mayo and known as a Corrs track Bhríd Óg Ní Mháille, sung in Gaelic as we hear the traditional close-up and personal rendition o the unmarried young Brigid O’Malley. We feel instantly the emotional warmth of the voice that will warm your soul throughout Foxglove & Fuchsia. Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh voice dominates the album on this bright and foot tapping collection that will bring you vocal sunshine on the dullest day as the reels and slides spill out of your speakers. This is music for the fireside, in a small public house to share with friends and family this is most definitely not arena music. Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh on Foxglove & Fuchsia captures the warmth, friendship and togetherness that binds traditional music across the globe wherever it is played. The sound is clear a clarion call in any language, the songs are a beguiling mix of Gaelic and English. Music to laugh, smile, shed a tear too and clap with delight the emotional is captured and understood crossing barriers of language with its inherent simplicity. The tone and texture reflecting the flowers in the album title Foxglove & Fuchsia. The Foxglove growing in the shade its beauty reflected in the dappled sunlight, always slightly hidden from view. In contrast the Fuchsia a vivid, blowsy flower that demands your eye’s attention. What does demand your attention of your ear is Muireann’s wonderful lyrical vocals, a unique blending natural and with hidden depths as the voice pulls the vitality from the damp, moist vitality of the earth in every number. Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh has achieved this by surrounding herself with a phalanx of might musicians that add to the interpretation of traditional Irish Music. Re-shaping the essence into a bright contemporary sound on an album that blends new songs with traditional, the old lyrics rearranged with new melodies.

The almost-title track Where Foxglove takes us into a special place the lyrics paint a visual soundscapes, we are among the flowers overlooking the sea. The guitar of Gerry O’Beirne & Donal O’Connor’s strings gentle complement the full tonal glory of her vocals. The harmonies on The Final Trawl make this track standout. Gaelic number from Basket Island about love lasting the test of time, the music and words fall over you and there is a solid permanence of love throughout the number. The mood changes we get up and dance to The Reels, infectious music and she plays the whistle with passion and flair on the instrumental joined by Bodhran played by Donnchadh & her husband Billy Mag Fhloinn on Bouzouki. A true celebration of instruments and the uplifting atmosphere that the instruments create. Her voice is not silent for long as I courted A Soldier, with harp and Uilleann pipes this is a gentle number that is delivering the heart and soul of Irish music.

Closing out this album that inner beauty with its quiet approach is Bean Dubh An Ghleanna, Black Bean of the Glen, so appropriate that unrequited love is explored as the music and a language of traditional Irish music is shared. An album full of beautiful moments, warmth and comfort. The speakers have transported us to a different land we find ourselves sitting in her garden surrounded by earthly beauty celebrating Foxglove & Fuchsia, comfortable in the personal space where we sit in her garden surrounded by earthly beauty celebrating Foxglove & Fuchsia shares with us on the album.

Robert Plant’s Solo Album Carry Fire the music burns deep. The music has hidden depths, as layers of tonal shapes and textures interlace with the thoughtful lyrics. Carry Fire is rooted in the earth, ethereal as air, turbulent as water and hot as fire as the four elements encapsulated across the eleven tracks. Joining Plant on his eleventh solo album for the second time are The Sensational Shape Shifters. The tonal range of the album is mellow and fruitful as Plant captures a misty melancholy yearning that is often felt in autumn. The colours are rich and fiery but these soon will fade as the year turns and seasons come and go. The soundscapes are painted that weaves through the tracks shaped by the instruments chosen as the passions wax and wane. Opening Carry Fire, with a jaunty number The May Queen we start off looking forward or back to a different season. The percussive beats hint at dance, light and merriment and surrendering as folk and rock merge at a crossroads of Plant’s own design contemporary and rooted deep in the roots of world folk traditions from North Africa and closer to home. Beguiling leaving you wanting to hear more as we Carry Fire on a journey with the lyrics of Robert Plant once more.

The use of a myriad of instruments on Carry Fire reflects the wealth of tones available to artists like Plant and Steve Hackett’s album Siren Nights earlier this year. Modern folk/roots/rock music is not just guitar led it is strengthened with the tonal complexity of instruments used across the world rooted in the earth creating a fiery musical backdrop. The array of instruments is a reflection of the virtuosity of The Sensational Space Shifters, who are with a selection of the instruments captured on Carry Fire. They are Austin Adams (Guitars, Oud, Percussion & Tambourine) Liam “Skin” Tyson, (Guitars, Dobro, twelve string, pedal steel etc.) John Baggott, (Keyboards, Moog, t’bal, bendir, slide guitar) Dave Smith (bendir, djembe, drums) and joining them are Seth Lakeman (Viola & fiddle) and Albanian Cellist Redi Hasa.

We are on the move, a feeling of urgency with the beating of drums as Plant explores the negativity of colonialism and modern topics that are part of the political, cultural and personal landscapes with nationalism addressed in Carving Up the World Again… A Wall Not A Fence. The beat is frenetic, his voice raised in passionate anger as he spits out the words. The instruments burn and coil around the lyrics, the attention is one-hundred percent on Plant’s impassioned lyrical outpouring. Powerful music for the age.

The title track coalesces around the instruments conjuring a fire in the deep darkness of a desert encampment. Plant once again captures the mood with the depth of lyric and the power of delivery. Deeper and with a sultry edge the younger Plant voice did not deliver. Age has shaped the interpretation of lyrics and music. The traditional North African instruments a song of love and the pain we inflict on ourselves and each other full of wistfulness and hope as Robert sings “I will Carry Fire for you….” Once again the song is rooted in tradition ground deep in the desert sands.

The tonal resonance changes with Bones Of Saints, hard-edged less fusion more rock. On the only cover on the album, Ersel Hickey’s Bluebirds Over The Mountain, Robert Plant is joined by a Chrissie Hynde the vocals reflect the changes in vocal ranges. The play of percussive power and violin adds to the hunger and energy in the number. Closing the album with Heaven Sent, the embers of Carry Fire are fading and the song gently leads us to the closing notes. Seasons turn and we all age. This is a testament to the longevity of Robert Plant who has delivered a beautiful reflective album. The hints of his past musical explorations can be heard as gentle echoes. They never overwhelm Carry Fire an album-defining Robert Plant in 2017.

Martin Harley and Daniel Kimbro –
Static In The Wire UK Tour

With a new album, Static In The Wire recorded and released on 10th February 2017 – so Martin Harley & Daniel Kimbro are on the road throughout March across the U.K. This follows on from the critically acclaimed album 2015’s Live at Southern Ground.

Static in the Wires is the new album from blues-Americana singer-songwriter Martin Harley and bass player extraordinaire Daniel Kimbro (Jerry Douglas, Larkin Poe).

Martin Harley is a supremely talented acoustic roots and blues guitarist, singer and songwriter with a burgeoning global reputation. Static in the Wires is his seventh album and the second with Daniel. The two first met through mutual friend, Sam Lewis, at Hippie Jack’s music festival in Crawford Tennessee. After a brief backstage rehearsal the two took to the stage for an hour of largely improvised music. A few weeks later they were cutting a record at Zac Brown’s iconic Southern Ground studios. Their live shows bring aspects of blues, Americana and folk to the table; Martin playing a 100 year Weissenborn (Hawaiian acoustic lap guitar), while Daniel beats scratches and bows a double bass to create an unexpected array of textures and sounds.

Static in the Wires was tracked live at Wow & Flutter Studios in East Nashville over four days. Engineered and mixed by analogue guru Joe V. McMahan making use of every corner of the space. The drums sounded great in the kitchen and if you listen carefully you can hear the freight trains rolling past. At one point heavily armed police sealed off the area to conduct a manhunt.

Mixing elements of Santo & Johnny, JJ Cale and Taj Mahal, Static in the Wires follows 2015’s Live at Southern Ground, glowingly described by The Observer as“A spellbinding 50 minutes”.

Flood & Burn
Stylish New Recording By Sean Taylor

A beautifully crafted album before a note of music played Flood and Bur states it is quality as the pleasure of exploring the cover. With its insightful and thoughtful haiku

A thumbprint of moon – Impressed into a corner – Of cold turquoise sky

Sean Taylor the master of modern folk is a talented singer/songwriter. Flood & Burn is no different. The folk vibe reaches across the Atlantic and adds a touch of Country, punch of Blues and creamy swirl of Jazz. This is the history of roots music pulling together cultures and melding the new tone to create the sound that reflects the now in a journey that music has culturally undertaken back through the mists of time. Music is a river of sand picking up tones and colour from every pebble it flows over.

Opening with Codeine Dreams, we are floating on a cushion of Joe Morales Saxophone, the song holds you transfixed in its mellow haunting and at the same time the disturbing beauty of dreams. From the first track the album is full of confidence and by the time the last notes fade it is no wonder that Sean Taylor says “Flood & Burn may be the best thing I have ever done,” We definitely have no argument with that statement. The tempo changes and the sound filling out with Troubadour and special guest Leonard Cohen’s band leader Roscoe Beck’s Double Bass. We are wandering with a troubadour of many songs and tunes with its country vibe and winding roads we have no idea what is around the corner a foot tapping number. Following this is Run To The Water which is full of blues hues making the water shimmer and a place you would definitely want to run to. Sean’s vocals throughout have a distinctive cadence, rough, and travel wearied with more than a hint of Tom Waits in lyrics and delivery. Sean is a singer-songwriter that explores each word and placing it carefully within the lyrical tale unfolding. As we pass the half-way mark on a musical and emotional journey no one wants to rush the album is definitely one to sit back and savour as we have the title song with its percussive guitar reflecting Sean’s vocal tones.

Back with country blues we have A Bad Case Of The Blues as Waits meets Townes Van Zandt. Hana Pirhana’s violin adds a bittersweet tone, with the hints of Eastern European folk music running through as Sean’s vocals pick up the sadness.

The penultimate track is the only cover that Sean has slipped in as a personal favourite, Heartbreak Hotel, featuring Eliza Gilkyson on backing vocals and slide from Andre Moran. Closing out with Better Man, written by Danny Thompson full of the power and majesty of his chosen instrument the double bass that squeaks, hums and vibrates behind Sean Taylor’s vocals. The perfect ending to an album whose chords and lyrics linger as the speakers fall silent. Flood and Burn – an album with different styles and tempos ensuring the listener’s interest is maintained from the first to the last note with his stunning guitar playing. Sum up the album – The guitar sings and the vocals growl simply intoxicating!

Barcelona For David Phillips
The Roof Top Recordings 2

Back on his rooftop in Barcelona for the second album of Roof Top recording, repeating the style of his 2011 Rooftops his first record on Black & Tan Records. On this album, David Phillips delivers eighteen tracks exploring his guitar, lyrics and warm vocals. On a rooftop, the recording process is simple, stripped back, only the essentials joining David in making this album. His guitar and voice are captured with just two microphones and all the doors and windows wide open. Adding some variation in guitar tone his Resonator and Cigar Box guitars make their appearances but nothing else to complicate the process of sharing his music. What we get is an artist who is at one with the whole process concentrating on delivering the twelve songs. The last six numbers are instrumentals providing a bonus EP to complete the rooftop stripped back vibe.

This is music that relaxes from the opening track Making It Up through to the last fading notes of the instrumental Long Flight Home.

Here It Is we hear in fleeting a Spanish neighbour then into an upbeat number, with this percussive number David captures your attention. Listen out through the album for when the outside makes a guest appearance including Swifts and House Martins, perfectly reflected in instrumentals Migration and Dance of The Swallows. Beat Box opening and we Are Flying High with the soulful vocals of David Phillips.

An acoustic, stripped back album. The making may have been simple, the result is an album full of shadows and moody mystery. The album captures that live, spontaneous feel as the bird song and a few unwitting neighbours captured when David Philips records the songs we want to hear. The Rooftop Recordings 2 is a must for lovers of acoustic simplicity, the power of lyrics, blues and soul to add to the collection of chill out tunes. The Cigar box adds a ripping it up-country blues tone to Tied Up Gagged and Bound the track is a foot tapping extravaganza. Counting himself in gives the feel of an intimate bar setting of a live acoustic session as he opens on Old Red Haze. A lyric about anger and is gentle as his guitar curls around the lyrics as he gets angry and blind. Country fueled with blues as we swing on the veranda and listen to the music flow.

The finale is a bluesy number Long Flight Home with birdsong getting the tune underway. Only one solution is to listen again!

David also a talented painter/draughtsman and the CD artwork is made up of a selection of his own watercolour paintings of birds that visit the Barcelona rooftops regularly. The special CD / artwork version is limited to 1000 numbered copies. You can order your copy HERE direct from the source for only 14,99 EURO (shipping included):

On The Lonesome Plain With Donal Clancy

With the musical intricacies of Donal Clancy accompanying you it will never be solitude On the Lonesome Plain. This is definitely no Wild West Country album. It is pure Irish Folk traditional tones with its mix of instrumentals and songs.

Opening with The Lowlands of Holland, we are introduced to the renowned guitar and vocal skills of Donal. With a solid folk vibe, the tone encourages you to sit back, relax and let the music flow over you just as a gentle spring breeze would over the lonesome plain. Within the traditional numbers are two of Donal’s own compositions in tune with the album a song and an instrumental. Firstly, we have The Green Fields of Canada full of yearning followed seamlessly by his own Máirseáil Na Conrach picking up the beat this is home, the moment for the warmth and familiarity with the hints of a jig. Towards the end of the album is his number commemorating the 1916 Easter rising, A Strike For Victory. Throughout the album, his stylish fingerpicking gives the guitar tone and textures that add layers of vibrating sound. His interpretation of the Scottish number Open The Door Softly from the pen of Archie Fisher is particularly effective. The track shines with the artistry of Ciaran Sommers’ Flute and David Power’s Whistle adding a haunting air and wistfulness as the door is softly opened. We dance and swirl our skirts remembering warm summer days with The Waterford Waltz, more country fair than Strictly with its relaxed approach to the Waltz! Another classic given the Clancy treatment is Reynardine, suiting the tone of the album and the pitch of Donal’s vocals. No folk album is complete without dancing and drinking and we have Whiskey, You’re the Devil which fits the bill. Upbeat this is a fireside song with a whiskey in the jar.

On The Lonesome Plain is thirteen tracks of folk shaded with the greens of Ireland, the brightness of the sun and the gentle washing of the warm rain. It has a fresh feel that entertains ad captures the listener as you sit back and let the strain of the day wash away with every chord from Donal Clancy’s magical guitar.